The Internet: The Missing Manual

Introduction

You think you feel overwhelmed by the march of technology? Then how’d you like to be the lady who, one day in the mid-90s, entered a computer store, handed the salesman a blank floppy disk, and asked him if she could please have a copy of the Internet?

The funny thing is, in the mid-90s, you practically could fit the Internet on a floppy. It was a novelty then, a toy for computer scientists and power nerds. People didn’t have Web addresses on their business cards, didn’t buy stuff electronically, didn’t have PTA meetings about keeping their kids safe online.

Nowadays, the Internet is a different story.

Physically, the Internet is a very long series of wires (with wireless gaps here and there) that eventually connects everyone’s computer to everyone else’s.

Culturally, though, it’s as important a communications system as the telephone—maybe more important. It’s a critical piece of every business’s business. It gives a global voice to anyone with something to say—for free. It’s changing the way we use and do just about everything: relationships, politics, religion, war, radio, TV and movies, news, communications…. In fact, it might be easier to make a list of things that haven’t been changed by the Internet.

Unfortunately, the Internet is also a playground for the latest generation of electronic pickpockets, scam artists, and hate-mongers.

And the Internet isn’t finished growing up, either. Every year there are new developments.

For example, in 2004, you might have said that ...